Objective:
The objectives of this cooperative research agreement are to: 1) validate a set of polymorphic markers (SSR or SNPs) located around candidate genes or gene networks important in adaptive differentiation; and 2) assess variation in these loci across inventories of diverse Brassica accessions.

Approach:
The first part of the project makes use of the extensive genomic annotation in Arabidopsis thaliana and looks for homologous loci within Brassica species. These objectives dovetail with ongoing work that includes identifying key functional loci and assessing allelic variation at these loci in progeny of crosses phenotyped in controlled environment. We will begin development of genotyping approaches at these loci in a wider pool of accession that have undergone multiple rounds of regeneration.